The separation of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is of great significance in determining the efficacy of TCM as well as the pharmacological study of active ingredients, improving the scope of application of TCM and the efficiency of disease prevention and treatment. In the current study, we have successfully synthesized a core–shell structure magnetic microsphere Fe 3 O 4 -COF for the separation of α-asarone and β-asarone in the combined decoction of Acorous Tatarinowii Rhizoma (ATR) and Polygalae Radix (PR). The successful synthesis of Fe 3 O 4 -COF was demonstrated chemically and morphologically by using five characterizations such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Extraction conditions were investigated and optimized, including adsorbent dosage, adsorption time, sample pH value, elution solvent, elution time and volume of elution solution. Under the optimal experimental conditions, we got a low limit of detection (LOD) of α-asarone and β-asarone were 0.0379 μg/mL and 0.0432 μg/mL, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were less than 2.3%. And the number and intensity of impurity peaks in the chromatogram after extraction of complex samples were significantly reduced and the good recoveries were still maintained after multiple extractions of complex samples, which showed satisfied specific adsorption and excellent resistance to matrix interference. The successful establishment of this method will provide a new direction for the separation and analysis of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an extreme progressive subtype of metabolic associated fatty liver disease, is well characterized by hepatic steatosis, injury and inflammation. It causes irreversible hepatic damage and there are no approved interventions for it. β-PAE, a representatively pharmacological active substance isolated from Pogostemon cablin , has been indicated to alleviate hepatic steatosis and injury through modulating lipid metabolism in rats with simple steatosis. However, its protection against NASH remains unclear. Here, this study explored the potential effect of β-PAE against high-fat diet-induced NASH in rats. The results displayed that β-PAE significantly reduced the gains of body weight and epididymal adipose tissue, liver index and attenuated liver histological damages in NASH rats. It also markedly alleviated hepatic inflammation by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. In NASH, the active NLRP3 inflammasome is caused by hepatic lipid abnormal accumulation-induced oxidative stress. Excessive oxidative stress results in hepatic histanoxia, which exacerbates lipid metabolism disorders by elevating CD36 to suppress AMPK signalling pathways. Moreover, the lipid accumulation led by lipid metabolism dysfunction intensifies oxidative stress. A vicious circle is formed among oxidative stress, histanoxia and lipid accumulation, eventually, but β-PAE effectively interrupted it. Interestingly, soluble CD36 (sCD36) was tightly associated not only with hepatic steatosis and injury but also with inflammation. Collectively, β-PAE exerted a positive effect against NASH by interrupting the vicious circle among oxidative stress, histanoxia and lipid accumulation, and sCD36 may be a promising non-invasive tool for NASH diagnosis.